The Plodcast

This week we're paddleboarding on the River Wye, Leave all your worries on the riverbank and be lulled by the gentle, rhythmic swish of the paddle blade. The water swirls around you, shoals of fish shoot away from your bow, birds peep from the stooping alders. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Maria Hodson, presented by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the second part of our exploration of the St Patrick's Way pilgrimage in Northern Ireland, Plodcast host Fergus Collins and guide Peter Rafferty walk south along the Newry Canal in Armagh. Abandoned in the mid 20th century, the canal is now a haven for wildlife – with whispers of history at every turn. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected]. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Magazine Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're in Beinn Eighe (Ben Ay) in the Scottish Highlands The mountains this morning are ill-manner; the trails rough, the gullies deep, the mist consuming. Winds elbow by like rushing commuters, and with them they bring rain. But such is the nature of summer in the Scottish Highlands that just as afternoon breaks the skies clear and a new day appears. Jubilant with the sparkling light, you pause by a high loch among even higher peaks to dry off and soak up the scene. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Daniel Graham, presented by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we’ve invited a former Plodcast guest to take the reins. Back in episode 199, I met James MacDonald Lockhart to hear the songs of skylarks in the Cotswolds. This week, we’re releasing him into his natural habitat – the wilds of Glenfeshie and surrounding Cairngorm mountain range – in a quest to meet one of Britain’s most unusual birds: the dotterel. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected]. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Magazine Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s night in a tent on the coast of Pembrokeshire. At some point during the dark hours, you stir. The rain is still falling, and there are layers to its sound. Great marbles of water fall from the beech tree above the tent; the wind throws buckets; then both become consumed by a deluge like no other, a shower so heavy that you could be in the raincloud itself. You’re grateful for your warm sleeping bag, and before you know it you’ve dropped once more into a deep, dreamless sleep. Recorded by Daniel Graham, presented by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team - and send your sound recordings of the countryside - to: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we’re heading back to early spring in the Welsh hills. But for the second Plodcast in a row, we’re not on foot. Following last week’s paddleboarding on the river Wye, plodcast host Fergus takes to two wheels to explore the hills of his beloved Bannau Brecheiniog. Borrowing an electric bike, he follows an old railway line into the wild to see how far he can get on a single battery charge – and get home again. This is episode 13 of season 16: Get Active in Nature Thank you to Merida for supplying the Merida eBigNine model for this podcast. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected]. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Magazine Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Huddled between the urban brawn of Cardiff, Caerphilly and Newport is small woodland of spruce and birds and dank gullies. There is a stream in this woodland, the kind of you may not even notice, should your mind be elsewhere. Out of view beneath the path, it is the cool air welling up from its jostling waters that first alters you to it. You soon smell it, all earth and minerals, before finally reaching it with sight. Recorded by Daniel Graham, presented by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we’re out on the water – a two-day paddleboarding adventure on the Wye the great river that flows through the borders of England and Wales. Maria Hodson is our host, and with an enthusiastic raft of fellow paddlers she meets the river’s wildlife and explores some of the darker issues facing this troubled waterway. This is episode 12 of season 16: Get Active in Nature Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected]. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s a sunny evening in a wooded glade on quiet stretch of the Isle of Wight's northern shore. Just beyond the trees, the sea bustles. But here, jolly holiday makers, blackbirds, woodpeckers and even bees are celebrating the end of a fine day. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Jack Bateman, presented by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week Annabel Ross ventures forth to the tangled rainforest of Wistman’s Wood on Dartmoor to meet poet Elizabeth Jane Burnett.But their mission isn’t to celebrate the revered twisted oak trees or the famous song birds – nor even the ferns and flowers. It’s the mysterious, magical and mesmerising… mosses – especially wonderful when heard through the words and verse of Elizabeth-Jane. Her new book, 12 Words for Moss champions these unsung heroes of the plant world. This is episode 11 of season 16: Get Active in Nature Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected]. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You spot a shelf of rock at the far end of the moon-shaped bay and make for it, the fine sand giving way to warm, angular, salt-rough ground. The scramble comes almost without thought, your bare feet gripping nimbly to the rock. You soon come to rest in a nook facing back to the shore. Kelp rolls in the mineral-blue waters at your toes; beyond that is the moon beach, your footprints already washed clean by the gently shelving waves. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Daniel Graham, presented by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Plodcast host Annabel Ross is on a musical mission, discovering how nature and wild sounds can influence a modern composer – in this case, acclaimed musician Erland Cooper. Hailing from the Orkneys, Erland combines field recordings and environmental messages with electronica and classical motifs and we’ll be hearing some of his music later: Solan Goose and then Movement 5 from his new album Folded Landscapes. But first let’s go with Annabel to meet Erland to have a nature ramble at a studio just outside of bath –a studio belonging to that legendary music maker Peter Gabriel. This is episode 10 of season 16: Get Active in Nature Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected] read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's a still summer's evening on a beach on the Isle of Wight. It’s still very warm and the heat seems to affect the sea itself. Wavelets sweep lazily onto the beach and then flop and sink into the shingle. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Jack Bateman, presented by Fergus Collins. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Plodcast team of Fergus, Hannah and Jack explore the River Frome in search of kingfishers, which some of the team have never seen. Along the way, they discover delightful urban wildlife, glorious wildflowers and a series of curious encounters… but do they find complete their mission? Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected]. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we're heading deep into the Sussex countryside in the company of writer and angler Chris Yates. In this, the first chapter from his book The Secret Carp, Chris heads out on an eerie late summer's evening to find the perfect pool for fishing. The whole work is now available as an audiobook from merlineunwin.co.uk/products/” BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be.Presented by Hannah Tribe.Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected] the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we’re going back to early spring and a trip to the north Cotswolds in Warwickshire to meet James Macdonald Lockhart who has written a book inspired purely by birdsong. Rather like our Plodcasts, James has spent several years on quests to listen to some of Britain’s most famous – and curious – avian melodies – and his book Wild Air reveals his adventures and the little known stories behind each species. In this quest, we were after perhaps the most written about – the most composed about – bird of them all: the skylark. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected]. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We’re near Loch Maree in western Scotland. You’re not sure what woke you first, the light or the birds. Either way, you stir peacefully in your bed, the sun casting half-light across the stone walls of the cottage as the lilts of Scotland’s avian world pour in through the open windows. A wood pigeon, a cuckoo, a blackbird. Sparrows in the eaves. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Daniel Graham, presented by Fergus Collins. Image by Getty Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we’re meeting naturalist Megan McCubbin who listeners will know from co-hosting TV shows such as Springwatch alongside her step-father Chris Packham. Plodcast host Fergus met up with Megan at the Hawk Conservancy Trust centre in Hampshire to talk about her new book – An Atlas of Endangered Species – and to find out more about her message of hope and action for a better future for our wild world. This is episode 7 of season 16: Get Active in Nature. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected]. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're in Wester Ross in the Highlands. The drive to road’s end is long and leisurely, the statuesque mountains and island-scattered lochs of Wester Ross giving way to the persuasions of the sea. Tiny ocean inlets, sail boats, seaweed shores. By the time you reach Red Point, you hear the waves calling, and within moments you’re sat on the sand, the breaking water pulling all your senses towards it. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Daniel Graham, presented by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Plodcast host Fergus meets Isabella Tree, who with her husband Charlie Burrell, transformed a loss-making dairy farm at Knepp in Sussex into one of the most remarkable havens for nature recovery in Europe. Hear the incredible story – and the ongoing projects to further enrich the estate and the wider countryside with nature. Look out for Isabella's new guide to bringing nature back to the land: The Book of Wilding, published by Bloomsbury. Photograph by Anthony Cullen This is episode 6 of season 16: Get Active in Nature. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected]. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We’re tucked deep in the folds of the north Dorset countryside. As the light fades the dusk chorus rises. In a dense thicket of thorn, a single nightingale starts to sing - drowning out the tractor mowing the year’s first silage. Its performance attracts the attention of another male, who moves in closer and soon a competitive duet fills the night. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Robert Ashington, presented by Hannah Tribe. Image by Getty. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected] Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Plodcast host Fergus camps overnight at the most famous rewilding estate in Britain in the hope of finally hearing nightingales on the Plodcast. But as the birds remain elusive, he joins nightingale surveyors Ivan and Alice at the crack of dawn to explore the extraordinary landscapes of Knepp, learn about the astonishing wildlife revival happening here and maybe, just maybe, catching the most magical birdsong to be heard in Britain. This is episode 5 of season 16: Get Active in Nature. With thanks to Ivan, Alice and all the team at Knepp. In next week's episode, we talk with Isabella Tree who, with her partner Charlie Burrell owns Knepp and has pioneered the rewilding project. Look out for her guide to bringing nature back to the land: The Book of Wilding, published by Bloomsbury. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected]. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's late morning in a springtime Dorset garden. The morning was cool and rainy, but as the wind blows in the trees and mist clears; you look out over the hills as the bird song comes to life. Wood pigeons coo from trees now bright with fresh spring leaves. Blue tits and starlings land on the gently swaying bird feeders to eat their fill. A proud robin bounces across the stone steps into the garden, inviting you to explore. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Daniel Kramer-Arden, presented by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected] Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Head with us to deepest Powys in mid Wales to The Dreaming. This wonderful house and surrounding landscape has been opened up as a place of retreat by sing-songwriter Charlotte Church. Our own Margaret Bartlett went to meet Charlotte and learn how she uses the natural landscape and its wild sounds to help heal visitors – and herself. It's a wonderfully uplifting conversation. This is episode 4 of season 16: Get Active in Nature Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected]. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's early and you're sitting outside a small tent deep the Knepp Wildlands of Sussex. A pre-dawn glow smudges the eastern sky. Elsewhere it is resolutely dark – but not quiet. Like a spring storm torrent, the blended voices of robins, blackbirds, blackcaps and thrushes wash away the woodsmoke tang of last night's campfires. It is urgent, passionate and fleeting. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Fergus Collins, presented by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected]. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We’re in Armagh in Northern Ireland, following in the footsteps of St Patrick. The patron saint of Ireland lived in the 5th century and his incredible story has helped shape Ireland since then. But why was he drawn to Armagh? Fergus Collins set out on a new pilgrimage route called St Patrick’s Way to find out more, beginning at the mysterious ancient site of Ewain Macha – known today as Navan Fort – that was a powerful spiritual centre in preChristian Ireland and a key site in the tale of St Patrick. This is episode 3 of season 16: Get Active in Nature Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected]. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ebbw Vale in South Wales holds many secrets, not least within the water-rucked hillsides that feed the valley. On one such slope there is an ancient woodland. At its base a river sparkles beneath a canopy of fresh beech leaves. You cross it and climb steeply, first through trees then heath and grassland. Bluebells bob in the May breeze; a lizard rustles in the warm bracken; streams gurgle in the sun. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Daniel Graham, presented by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected] Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In episode 2 of season 16, we’re talking about walking, but in the context of a curious new film: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry starring Penelope Wilton and Jim Broadbent – about a man in his 60s who embarks on an unlikely 450 mile pilgrimage across Britain to see a dying friend.Plodcast regular Maria Hodson went to see the film – and meet Penelope and Jim, as well as the original book’s author (and writer of the screen play) Rachel Joyce to talk about the project – and their own connections to countryside. Later, Maria and Plodcast host Fergus test the power walking with a trip to the Mendip Hills near Bristol… This is episode 2 of season 16: Get Active in Nature Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected]. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're in Velvet Bottom nature reserve in the Mendips where woodlands and wildflowers have overun the old lead mines. It's still early spring and mistle thrushes, willow warblers, goldfinches are establishing territories in the most enchanting fashion. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Maria Hodson, presented by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected]. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the first episode of a new season, the Plodcast team of Fergus, Hannah and Jack meet up with naturalist and One Show regular Mike Dilger to search for some of Britain’s rarest plants in the magnificent Avon Gorge on the edge of Bristol.Along the way Mike shares some astonishing stories from his quest to find 1000 plant species in the UK in the course of a single year. His book about this adventure is called 1000 Shades of Green and is published by Bloomsbury. This is episode 1 of season 16: Get Active in Nature Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected]. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're on the northern edge of the Cotswolds in South Warwickshire – a vast open field of young barley stretches to the horizon. Quietly at first, then all of a rush, a hidden chorus of skylarks rises from the vegetation, singing exultantly, ever higher until they become specks in the cloudy heavens. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Fergus Collins, presented by Maria Hodson. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected] Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We wandering in deeply rural County Armagh. It's early spring and the rooks rule the woodlands. Nesting close together in the canopies of a dozen roadside trees, the birds create a bustling city of more than 300 birds. Pairs greet each other and squabble with neighbours – and all the while the excitement rises as the first chicks begin to hatch. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewherebeautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Fergus Collins, presented by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected] Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Plodcast – the nature and countryside podcast from BBC Countryfile Magazine. This is a preview of season 16 of the Plodcast where the regular team of Fergus, Hannah and Jack celebrate early spring, talk about upcoming episodes and invite you, the listener, to get involved. The new season of the Plodcast begins on 2 May. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected]. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're in Blawith Fells in the Lake District. he walk up to the tarn felt a little like a dream; the sun-warmed lane rising gently – rhythmically – between trickling brooks and beds of bracken, beyond which rolled the flaxen commonlands of the Blawith Fells. You reach the pool and settle on a tussock of grass beside it. Water trickles and birds sing as Lakeland’s higher fells glow to the north in the rare spring sun. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Daniel Graham, presented by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected] Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sun spills over the Avalon Marshes, driving away the last vestiges of winter. Chiffchaffs have arrived, bringing their flinty song two-note song to the reedbeds and willows. Across the water comes the hysterical giggling of courting little grebes. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Fergus Collins, presented by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected] Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The first inklings of spring are stirring in the Rhymney Valley in South Wales. Down at the foot of the dell, where the two streams meet, there is a mossy bank. You lay down your jacket and sit upon it to gaze up at the trees, which soar like skyscrapers into the plain white sky, as spring rain and birdsong spiral down. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Daniel Graham, presented by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected] Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nature Isn't Neat is a project pioneered in South-east Wales to bring wildlife and a bit of wildness into public parks, gardens and other commonly used spaces. Plodcast host Fergus met Elliot Waters who leads the projects to talk about how the project works and what it does for our wellbeing as well as addressing the terrible loss of biodiversity in Britain. Not everyone is happy however – and we look at some of the challenges the project has faced. Along the way, the Plodcasters encounter the first wonderful surge of spring nature… Image by Getty. This is the last of 12 episodes of season 15: Mindful walks in nature Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected]. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're among the moss and ferns of a Welsh rainforest in early spring. Against the backdrop of a stream swollen with rain, the trees are dripping – and the birds stirring. A song thrush's voice rings out from the top of an oak tree while coal tits mutter and a green woodpecker yaffles. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Fergus Collins, presented by Hannah Tribe. Image by Getty. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected] Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dr Amir Khan is a well known GP and TV doctor but has recently been appointed president of the RSPB. We sent Plodcast regular Annabel Ross to meet up with the DR to talk about his new role – and discover just how important the link between nature and health really is. This is episode 11 of season 15 of the Plodcast: Mindful Walks in Nature. Image by Getty. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected]. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're in New Zealand at the top end of the South Island. The nature reserve on the Pelorus river has the last stands of river-flat native forest in the region These beautiful, shaded glades of broadleaf woodland have a dense undergrowth of ferns, tree-ferns and lianas and epiphytes. The chorus of cicadas is the summer song of the forest. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded and presented by Margaret Bartlett. Image by Getty. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected] Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the heart of Wellington, capital of New Zealand, a brilliant wildlife haven has brought a host of rare species back from the brink of extinction. Margaret Bartlett joins CEO of Zealandia, Danielle Shanahan to meet and hear some of the inhabitants and find out what lessons other countries – especially the UK – can learn from the project. This is episode 10 of season 15 of the Plodcast: Mindful Walks in Nature. Image by Getty. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected]. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's a wintry afternoon on the Somerset Levels. In the pre-dusk light, you watch as a thin mist evolves from the reeds and settles on the ice. It’s not all ice, there are sections of the surface that have been broken open by the many waterbirds that live in this winter-gold enclave of the Levels. Undeterred by the by the frigid conditions are coots int their scores. Moorhens call, geese clamour, a marsh harrier rises silently from the din. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Daniel Graham. Presented by Hannah Tribe Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected] Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Enjoy a gentle ramble with poet Kenneth Steven who lives and breathes the wild landscapes on his doorstep on the Isle of Seil. Recorded in early spring last year, this mini adventure includes some wonderful poetry celebrating the joy of nature – and warning us that we must all do more to look after it. Later, join the Plodcast team to talk birds of prey, den building and tomatoes… This is episode 9 of season 15 of the Plodcast: Mindful Walks in Nature. Image by Getty. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected]. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're at Becky Brook on Dartmoor. It's the first day of the year where you can feel the warmth of the sun on your face. The light breeze floats through the trees causing the dappled sunlight to shimmer on the water. A dog barks happily while playing in the water. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Annie Sanderson. Presented by Hannah Tribe Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected] Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Listen to the thrilling bustle of a seabird colony as naturalist Megan Shersby visits RSPB Bempton Cliffs on the Yorkshire coast in the company of visitor experience manager Abbie Ferrar. This marvellous haven for nature is one of the few mainland seabird colonies in the UK and anything can turn up, as you'll hear. Later, join the Plodcast team for a gentle chat about nature and countryside. This is episode 8 of season 15 of the Plodcast: Mindful Walks in Nature. Image by Getty Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected]. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're in a wooden vale in the Black Mountains of south wales. It’s very late winter but recent bright and dry weather has crisped the autumn leaves – so while your feet crunch in the litter of oak litter, the first birds are singing and raven croaks rain down from the wide blue sky. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded and presented by Fergus Collins Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected] Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join the Plodcast team as we go fishing with Plodcast regular Kevin Parr on the Bridgewater and Taunton Canal in Somerset. For Jack and Hannah it was the first time fishing – did we catching anything? Did we enjoy it? Listen on for a quite magical day in the countryside. Find out more about Kevin Parr's new book: The Quiet Moon: Pathways to an Ancient Way of Being This is episode 7 of season 15 of the Plodcast: Mindful Walks in Nature. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected]. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're high on the Wessex Downs. A long barrow broods on a lonely ridge – a tomb that has stood here for 5000 years. Caught in a storm while walking the Ridgeway, you are forced to shelter in the barrow's entrance, listening to the raindrops falling from the ancient stones. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Fergus Collins. Presented by Hannah Tribe. Image by Oliver Edwards. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected] Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Back in January, a high court upheld an action brought by local landowners and ruled that there was no right to wild camping in Dartmoor National Park. In response, thousands of protesters headed to the moors to protest about access to the countryside – and the right to camp. Our own Maria Hodson was there to explore the issue for us. Later, Maria spoke to folk singer and right to roam campaigner Sam Lee about why so many people are angry at the court's decision. And you can hear one of Sam's songs at the end of this podcast. This is episode 6 of season 15 of the Plodcast: Mindful Walks in Nature. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected]. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Walking the coast path around Hartland Point after snowfall Winter’s cold brings many pleasures. Frost-enshrined thorns, glinting in the light of a low sun; nights so silent you could hear a snowflake drop; the lifting lilt of the robin song through icy dawn air. And snow underfoot, a so sound so evocative of being a child that you become one again… for a short while at least. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Daniel Graham. Presented by Hannah Tribe. Image by Getty. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected] Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices